An elementary form of agency at planetary-scale
6 affiliations
- 1Vrije Universiteit Brussel, CLEA, Brussels, Belgium
- 2Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Biotecnologicas, CNIB, Cochabamba, Bolivia
- 3Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany
- 4Faculty of Health Data Science, Juntendo University, Chiba, Japan
- 5ELLIS Institute, Tübingen, Germany
- 6Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
Abstract
The claim that climate homeorhesis—non-equilibrium steady-state dynamics that underlie Earth’s long-term habitability—depends on an integrated biosphere–climate system capable of acting on its own is central to debates surrounding the Gaia hypothesis. This paper presents a proof of concept suggesting a minimal form of planetary agency based on a simple biosphere–climate system model operating through active inference. This means that the internal states of the system (biosphere) will appear to infer shifts in net incoming solar radiation (external states) through its boundary states, i.e. by integrating past and current surface temperatures (sensory states) and actively changing greenhouse forcing (active states) to maintain climate trajectories within geophysiological bounds. When surface temperature is altered by solar fluctuation changes, the system adjusts greenhouse and albedo parameters to restore expected climate trajectories, analogous to correcting sensory prediction errors in biological systems. Perturbing active states (e.g., imposed changes in albedo) does not reduce inference precision. Inference robustness decreases when the system’s degrees of freedom increase. Active inference falls, and thus climate homeorhesis fails when there is no biosphere activity (lifeless planet) or when it is decoupled from the climate system. Predictive behaviour operates within the range of solar constants consistent with life’s presence on Earth (~ 4 Ga to ~ 1.5 Ga expected in the future); outside this range, inference fails, undermining a putative form of planetary agency.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-61878-9.
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BibTeX
@article{rubin2026elementary,
title = {{An elementary form of agency at planetary-scale}},
author = {Sergio Rubin and Conor Heins and Takahito Mitsui and Lancelot Da Costa and Karl Friston},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-61878-9},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-61878-9},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - An elementary form of agency at planetary-scale
AU - Sergio Rubin
AU - Conor Heins
AU - Takahito Mitsui
AU - Lancelot Da Costa
AU - Karl Friston
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/03
JO - Scientific Reports
DO - 10.1038/s41598-026-61878-9
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-61878-9
AB - The claim that climate homeorhesis—non-equilibrium steady-state dynamics that underlie Earth’s long-term habitability—depends on an integrated biosphere–climate system capable of acting on its own is central to debates surrounding the Gaia hypothesis. This paper presents a proof of concept suggesting a minimal form of planetary agency based on a simple biosphere–climate system model operating through active inference. This means that the internal states of the system (biosphere) will appear to infer shifts in net incoming solar radiation (external states) through its boundary states, i.e. by integrating past and current surface temperatures (sensory states) and actively changing greenhouse forcing (active states) to maintain climate trajectories within geophysiological bounds. When surface temperature is altered by solar fluctuation changes, the system adjusts greenhouse and albedo parameters to restore expected climate trajectories, analogous to correcting sensory prediction errors in biological systems. Perturbing active states (e.g., imposed changes in albedo) does not reduce inference precision. Inference robustness decreases when the system’s degrees of freedom increase. Active inference falls, and thus climate homeorhesis fails when there is no biosphere activity (lifeless planet) or when it is decoupled from the climate system. Predictive behaviour operates within the range of solar constants consistent with life’s presence on Earth (~ 4 Ga to ~ 1.5 Ga expected in the future); outside this range, inference fails, undermining a putative form of planetary agency. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-61878-9.
SN - 2045-2322
ER -